Tempt the Rose
by Leanan Sidhe
Summary: Samantha Carlyle joins the group to Rose Red, her gift: Everything, what happens to the house that has so many doors when three keys are put in the locks?


Disclaimer: I don't own Rose Red, or any of the characters except for Sam. But as always I see a sexy man I call him, so Nick is mine.....in my head.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Ms. Rhearden tracked me down to my college. Five thousand dollars for two days in Rose Red? I was an idiot if I didn't take it but I was more than that if I did, I was suicidal, but then I've always been one to walk on the wild side. So I went to the meeting, quite a production for a physcology ward. They are all gifted but I was most drawn to Nick. He had an unbelievable power that he would not show. That intrigued me. I was resolved to figure him out and piece him back together like a puzzle. And the best opportunity for that was at the pre-slaughter party. Because that's what this was, Rose Red was a slaughter house, and before I went I was going to party.....maybe even get laid.  
  
~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"You're a goddess." The brave latino whose name I somehow missed getting whispered in my ear. I threw my head back and laughed.  
  
"Yes, but which one?"  
  
We were at some club...I never pass up a chance to shake it on the dance floor, I wasn't starting now.  
  
A conversation barely audible over the din flew to my ears, sound sharpening.  
  
"Well, she's different."  
  
"Aren't we all." Came the soft male purr.  
  
"She's so young, I don't think she's ready for something like this."  
  
I scowled, as the latino dipped me.  
  
"We really shouldn't be talking about this." The man said softly.  
  
"Why?" The woman was confused.  
  
"She's listening."  
  
The last bit was meant for me alone, since I heard it in the doors behind my brain.  
  
(Aren't you?)  
  
I turned to the table where the rest of the group sat and found Nick looking in my direction. He raised his glass in a toast.  
  
"Cheers." He mouthed.  
  
I smiled and pushed away the latino with the wandering hands and even more wandering gaze and made my way back to the table.  
  
"My that was impressive." Nick commented as I took a seat next to him and Pam. I smirked gesturing to Kathy to pass the beer. Filled to the brim I knocked my head back, gulping it down.  
  
"Good god, Sam, you'll pass out in a minuet." Nick said chuckling, prying the glass from my hands, "Well it's obvious that Samantha's talent and ability is to avoid getting smashed. What about everyone else?"  
  
Vic spoke up seeming to be seeing something we couldn't see, something from a distance of time or space, "A man and a woman. He's wearing jeans. She's wearing a blue dress. He's got a case of Roman hands and Russian fingers......." He trailed off.  
  
"What?" Pam asked, smothering a laugh until a couple passed.  
  
A woman in a blue dress.  
  
Her date wearing jeans gave her ass a lingering squeeze.  
  
"Holy god!" I laughed, "Sharp eyes, old boy!"  
  
"You're a pre-cog?!" Pam asked amazed.  
  
"I can tell a falcon from a sparrow when the wind is in the west."  
  
"What about you, Pam?" Nick asked taking a sip of his own beer.  
  
"I'm....I'm what physcics call.....a Touch-Know. Sometimes I touch things and get feelings." She seemed shy about the whole thing as her shoulders hunched over in embarrassment.  
  
Nick sent a kind look her way of comforting understanding. I felt a wave of warm heat brush by my cheek on it's way to Pam. Her eyes suddenly brightened and she sat up straight again.  
  
"Kathy, what do you do?" She asked.  
  
I turned slowly to look Nick in the eye. He gave a shrug of his shoulders in innocence. I snorted into my mug. He had done something to Pam to make her feel more assured. Innocent my ass.  
  
Meanwhile Kathy was explaining she was an automatic writer.  
  
Nick dropped my gaze, turning to Kathy smiling, "Quiji Board!"  
  
"Yes.....well I don't like to use them. The forces they let in aren't always pleasant but I like this better." She claimed pulling out a notepad and pen. Oooooh demonstration, goody goody! "Someone concentrate! You....." she cried her finger pointing to Pam, "Pam."  
  
"Alright." Pam murmured, blushing delicately as she obliged and closed her eyes.  
  
Kathy began trailing lines which wound themselves across the top of the paper. Suddenly her hand dipped to draw a heart. I leaned forward in my seat as the hearts took up half the page. Kathy looked up shocked at Pam as her hand continued to write one word over and over.  
  
Pam bit her lip, "I guess it isn't going to work....."  
  
Steve.  
  
Steve.  
  
Steve.  
  
Steve, ran across the surface of the pad.  
  
"Steve!?!" Nick cried in disbelief, a wonderful grin splitting his face.  
  
So the girlish pixie had her sights on our tour guides lover. Gotta hand it to her, nice choice in men, that one was a pure heart, but I liked my men...I glanced at Nick trying to find one word to describe him to myself. Impossible.  
  
Pam opened her eyes in a flash.  
  
"Ow, ow!" I howled, "So the truth comes out! Go for it, my friend."  
  
She snatched the pad from Kathy, hiding it under the table. Kathy's hand rose to cover her mouth, muffling her pleased laugh.  
  
Pam closed her eyes, calming her breathing, "So," she said turning to Nick, "what do you do Steve....I mean Nick?!"  
  
He graced her with a knowing smile as he bent to peer into his beer glass. I glanced in mine and saw it was halfway full. That would never do. The next time the cup touched the table it was empty, which I made most sure of.  
  
Nick's voice reached my ear on the right, "He calls her D...." He mused. Quirking my head I saw he was still staring into the depths of his amber filled glass, "I wonder why he does that?" He mused again lightly.  
  
Pam's eyes flicked from him to his glass, "Nick?" She pressed, her tone inquiring.  
  
Nick looked up as if waking from a dream or settling his feet after being in the clouds, "Oh, I do a little of this, a little of that. I dabble here and there...."  
  
I stretched leaning back, "Dabbling," I nodded my head in agreement, " nothing greater."  
  
"Beer?" Nick said raising his glass as if to punctuate his point.  
  
"Chocolate." Kathy said.  
  
"Cashmire." Pam smiled, rubbing the blue material of her sleeve.  
  
"A good pipe." Vic contributed.  
  
"A good lay." I added frankly.  
  
The whole table erupted in laughter as I smiled at my daring.  
  
"That goes without saying." Nick chuckled, "Sex."  
  
"And beer." I reminded him sternly, "May the one always lead to the other."  
  
"Indeed." Nick agreed.  
  
Kathy was wiping her tears of mirth from under her glasses while Pam's blush accented her face more obviously.  
  
"And what about our little friend, Emery? What do you think it is he does?" Nick asked no one in particular.  
  
Pam made a face, I agreed whole heartedly, "Your friend not mine."  
  
"I think Emery is strictly post-cognative." Kathy informed us, "He sees the past."  
  
"Not always the most pleasant of talents, is it?" Nick said seriously. "Well," he rapped his knuckles on the table, "that just leaves the mysterious Samantha."  
  
Vic nodded, adjusting his glasses to peer at me.  
  
"What's your mutant power?" Kathy asked, laughing softly.  
  
I ran my finger around the mug, darting brief glances at them from beneath my lashes, "Everything." I finally muttered.  
  
Kathy let out a nervous laugh.  
  
"You're joking right?" Pam asked.  
  
I shot her a glare as my finger continued to circle the rim of the glass, as if trying to get a crystal note out of it.  
  
Sing, I commanded.  
  
The mug let out a low pitched moan of a tone, not overwhelming but there all the same. They didn't understand. I continued, the path of my finger picking up speed. The sharp ring intensified.  
  
Nick stilled my hand over the top, gently raising it, to stare intently between it and the thick glass that could never produce such a sound.  
  
"I thought the mugs were glass, not crystal." Kathy asked.  
  
"They are." He murmured staring steadily at me.  
  
"But......but...." she stuttered.  
  
"How?" Vic asked leaning closer.  
  
"Sam, I am, was telling the truth it seems." Nicks smile resurfaced in a flicker. "Anything and Everything?"  
  
"What else can you do? I mean that was amazing." Pam's eyes were wide and a nervous smile was inching up her mouth as well.  
  
I thought for a moment, loosening up.  
  
"Have you ever wanted to dye your hair?" I asked her.  
  
"Oh gee, when I was in High School." She laughed her admittance.  
  
"What color?" I pressed.  
  
"Red."  
  
I looked at her blond locks, "Dark?"  
  
"No, just like the natural kind."  
  
I nodded reaching a hand forward, "Take your hair down."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Here." I took her hair out of it's ponytail. Taking a strand I ran a finger down it. There was a startled gasp from Kathy as the shade of her hair, as my finger passed it, changed. Red.  
  
"What? WHAT?" Pam asked making a dash to see what everyone else was seeing. Her hand grabbed the strand from me. Her gaze raised to mine and she started to laugh, "My god! This is so cool! Can you do my whole head?!"  
  
I laughed and tugged on the strand sharply, changing it back.  
  
"Is that all?" Nick queried, raising a brow challengingly, "I was hoping for something a bit more impressive and useful." And so saying set down his empty mug.  
  
Opening my hand as a welcome the mug slid across the table to me. Concentrating, I covered the sides with my hands. Lifting them away, all saw the glass was once again filled.  
  
"Holy Mary Mother of God." Vic murmured removing his glasses to clean them and then gingerly putting them back on. Kathy didn't even reprimand him for the use of his biblical terms, such was her shock.  
  
I pushed the glass back to Nick, "Impressive?"  
  
He accepted it gratefully, "I'm not so sure about that but certainly useful." He answered taking a large and long gulp.  
  
"There is just no pleasing you." I sighed happily.  
  
Nick's eyes twinkled in the light. He raised his glass, "To surprises."  
  
Everyone rose their glasses in a toast.  
  
"To Rose Red." I added softly.  
  
"Why?" Kathy asked.  
  
"Rose Red will be a surprise." I murmured, seeing only dark outlines of what awaited us there. I forced a smile on my face, "Cheers, darlings." 


End file.
